State of the Arts: Q&A with Illustrator Luca Carey

`State of the Arts’ spotlights contemporary artists who I think are pretty fucking amazing and deserve your attention.

Luca Carey is a New York City-based illustrator and comic artist who graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2013. His website is Rainbots, and he’s on Facebook and Tumblr. You can request a commission here, and you can donate here (donations of $50 or more come with an original sketch of your choosing).

2W2N: What’s your preferred medium?

CAREY: Photoshop, all day every day.

2W2N: Your work has a definite otherwordly, psychedelic flavor. Was that there from the beginning?

CAREY: It’s a little hard to say what the beginning was, but I guess I would say yes. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve been trying to make stuff that’s visually appealing while also pointing towards something shocking or transcendent.

CAREY: Beksinski, Moebius, and Ashley Wood are probably my favorite artists. Music is possibly the most important thing, though, as it’s next to impossible for me to do anything without it. I especially admire artists like Susumu Hirasawa and Helium Vola because their sound captures the perfect mix of chaos and harmony.

2W2N: You did the outstanding cover art for the new Dan Terminus album The Wrath of Code (Blood Music, 2015), which is how I found you. What other projects do you have coming up?

CAREY: I’m working on a couple of other album covers, actually; one for a new synthwave project called Virtua Cult. I’m in the very slow process of writing a book, also, that I will eventually illustrate. As I like to remind myself, it’s pretty small at the moment, but not small enough to quit or forget about.

2W2N: What kind of commissions will you consider? Can we buy prints of your work?

CAREY: I’ll consider anything that pays well, is interesting, and isn’t closely associated with any kind of deeply illegal or immoral enterprise! I’m actually quite fortunate to have a style that gives me a lot of freedom; no one is writing me to commission stock illustrations, for example. I take print orders from my Facebook page at the moment, and I plan on setting up a little store on my website at some point, but first I have to get my printer fixed.